Silent warning on a diverted course, the Liaison Office Chief secretly lays a smokescreen

Deep space is silent.

Gwen Stacy Stacy's light Shuttle, like a forgotten speck of dust, glided along the silent channel outside the T-03 Defense Zone.

Inside the Bridge, the lights were dimmed, with only a few screens glowing faintly. The air carried the cool, metallic scent of the regeneration system.

The two accompanying clerks, one on the left and one on the right, were meticulously processing the mountain of electronic files. This was the daily routine of the Liaison Office; even on a voyage far from the central hub, the rules and procedures were never relaxed in the slightest.

Gwen Stacy sat upright in the main seat, with an asset inventory of a long-abandoned TVA observation station displayed on the virtual screen in front of her. She read very slowly, her fingertips occasionally tracing faint lines across the screen.

"Director."

Suddenly, Xiao Zhang, the clerk on the left, spoke up, his voice low and tinged with uncertainty.

Gwen Stacy didn't look up; her gaze remained fixed on the depreciation rate column in the inventory list.

"Explain."

"There seems to be something wrong with the underlying data in the navigation log." Xiao Zhang zoomed in on a column of data and pushed it onto the secondary screen in front of Gwen Stacy.

Gwen Stacy's gaze slowly shifted over.

Which column?

"Timestamp calibration." Xiao Zhang pointed to the string of numbers. "According to the established flight path, our main timer and the Management Committee's central timer should automatically calibrate every twelve standard hours. However, starting from the last cycle, every calibration has shown a 0.003 microsecond lag drift. This has happened three times in a row."

0.003 microseconds.

An error that is almost negligible is not even considered a normal engine vibration in the vast interstellar journey.

Upon hearing this, another clerk, Xiao Li, also looked up from his work, glanced at the data, and casually said, "It's probably residual spatial disturbance caused by the warp engine cooling down. It's happened before. Just report it."

Xiao Zhang hesitated and said, "But the values for the three drifts are exactly the same."

Exactly the same.

These four words caused the air inside the Bridge to momentarily freeze.

Random perturbations will never produce completely consistent errors. Behind this lies some kind of human, precise, and continuous intervention.

Gering's fingertip stopped on the screen.

She didn't look at the abnormal data, but instead flipped back two more pages of the asset inventory in front of her.

"Retrieve the backup power module loss report from Q-7 Observation Station again." Her tone was calm and composed, revealing no emotion. "I need to check it item by item against the inventory receipt from three years ago."

Xiao Zhang was stunned for a moment.

These are completely unrelated matters. Shouldn't the most important thing right now be investigating the risk of flight route tampering?

But looking at Gwen Stacy's expressionless profile, he swallowed the words that were on the tip of his tongue. He was just a clerk; execution was his duty.

"Yes, Director." Xiao Zhang responded and immediately began searching through the vast database for that old file.

The Bridge fell silent again, with only the sound of Data Stream silently across the screen.

Gwen Stacy's gaze seemed focused on the tedious accounts, but out of the corner of her eye, she kept her eyes fixed on a corner of the ship's status overview.

She certainly knew there was a problem with the flight path.

That microsecond-level alteration was like a skilled hacker implanting an almost imperceptible beacon at the very bottom of a massive system. It didn't actively cause damage or trigger alarms; it simply and silently corrected the Shuttle's course, causing it to deviate from its intended trajectory without the user even realizing it.

A large-scale investigation would only alert the suspects.

In this situation where the enemy is in the dark and we are in the light, any overreaction could lead to a fatal blow.

All she could do was pretend she knew nothing.

The accounting of the abandoned observatory, a seemingly tedious and unimportant compliance process to outsiders, is precisely her perfect disguise and the best excuse to stall for time.

"Xiao Li," Gwen Stacy suddenly spoke.

"Yes, Director," the Xiao Li on the right replied immediately.

"Go to the engine room." Gwen Stacy's voice remained steady. "I remember, to protect the precision instruments from Cosmic Rays, the bottom of this ship's hull was coated with lead and mercury."

"Yes, Chief, it's standard equipment for the ' Hive ' class Shuttle."

"Hmm." Gwen Stacy nodded. "Go and manually operate it. Reduce the output power of backup power line B-3 by seven percent, and direct all the excess energy into the Sixth-Cycle Matrix of the lead-mercury coating on the hull."

Xiao Li was somewhat puzzled. "Director, doing this will slightly increase the ship's energy consumption, and... the Sixth-Cycle Matrix is mainly used to physically isolate Psychic Power scans, and we are currently..."

"Also," Gwen Stacy interrupted him, "Don't use the real-time energy parameters fed back to the Control Console. Go to the archive and retrieve the saved data from last month's static inspection of the spaceship at the Starport; use that."

Xiao Li was completely stunned.

Reduce the output of one energy source, divert the energy to an unrelated defense system, and finally cover it all up with false data.

He wasn't stupid; he instantly understood Gwen Stacy's intention.

This is using that thick layer of lead and mercury coating to create a false energy signal. This signal will perfectly simulate the illusion that the Shuttle is functioning normally, and then relay this information to the eye that is secretly watching.

He looked at Gwen Stacy, the young Liaison Office Chief who was still calmly flipping through the ledgers, as if what she had just given was just an ordinary instruction.

This composure under pressure and the meticulousness of his methods sent a chill down Xiao Li's spine. He dared not ask any more questions and nodded heavily.

"I'll take care of it right away."

Xiao Li turned and left.

Inside the Bridge, only Gwen Stacy and Xiao Zhang remained.

Gwen Stacy lightly tapped the ledger, marking a report as "Questionable, pending review," then casually asked, "Xiao Zhang, how long have you been with me?"

While searching for information, Xiao Zhang replied, "Director, three years and seven months."

"Hmm," Gwen Stacy responded casually. "The most important thing in working at the Liaison Office is to treat every little thing as if it were a matter of utmost importance. Look, like this 0.003 microsecond error, if you don't say anything and I don't ask, it will pass. But if it can pass, we can't."

Xiao Zhang paused, then suddenly understood.

The section chief was giving him a hint.

Just then, an inconspicuous monitoring icon on the edge of the Bridge's main control screen flashed silently.

[WARNING: High-intensity passive scanning wave detected, source identified as "Bloodfang" raider standard reconnaissance signal.]

They've arrived.

Gwen Stacy's pupils contracted almost imperceptibly, but her hand holding the data pen remained steady without the slightest tremor.

The deception she had created had fooled the enemy's initial probing. Now, it was time for them to reveal their true colors.

However, before she could make a further decision, another crisp notification sound rang out unexpectedly in the silent Bridge.

Above the glaring scan warning, a green communication request window, representing the highest security level, forcibly popped up.

There is no sender and no message.

There is only one line of short characters encrypted with the highest-level key on the Management Committee's internal network.

[SOS: Key T/N-001. Coordinates locked. Do not respond.]